Shrek 2 scored the fourth largest three day opening
weekend in US history, as well as the largest opening for an
animated film until May 18, 2007, when it
was eclipsed by its sequel Shrek the
Third. As of 2008, it is the inflation-adjusted 30th
highest-grossing film of all time in the US. It went on to be the
highest grossing film of 2004. The associated soundtrack reached
the top ten of the Billboard
200. It is also the seventh highest ticket selling animated
film of all time. It is, as well, the highest-grossing
fully-animated film of all timeand DreamWorks's most successful
film to date.

Plot

When Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) and
Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz) come
back from their honeymoon, they find an invitation to a royal ball
with Fiona's parents to celebrate their marriage, an event Shrek is
reluctant to participate in. Fiona talks him into it, and along
with Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy),
they travel to the kingdom of Far Far Away. They meet Fiona's
parents, King Harold and Queen Lillian (voiced by John Cleese and Julie
Andrews), who are surprised and repulsed by Fiona's choice of
husband (particularly the King himself), since they had arranged
that Prince Charming rescue her from the castle but now they see
that her husband is an ogre.

At a shared meal, Shrek and Harold get into a heated argument over
how Shrek and Fiona will raise their family, and Fiona, disgusted
at Shrek and her father's behavior, locks herself away in her room
that evening, where she meets her Fairy Godmother (voiced by
Jennifer Saunders), who is also
surprised at Fiona's new looks. Shrek worries that he has lost his
true love, particularly after finding her childhood diary and
reading that she was once infatuated with Prince Charming (voiced
by Rupert Everett).

King Harold is accosted by the Fairy Godmother and Charming, her
son. The two retell the Prince's adventures and how he overcame
many obstacles and climbed a high tower in order to rescue her
finding instead a crossdressing wolf. They reprimand Harold for
breaking an old promise that Charming would be able to marry Fiona
and demand that he find a way to get rid of Shrek. Harold arranges
for Shrek and Donkey to join him on a fictitious hunting trip,
which really is a trap to lure the two into the hands of an
assassin, Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas).

When Fiona realizes that Shrek left she asks her father for help
but he replies that he always wanted the best for her and that she
should better think about what is the best for her, too. Puss is
unable to defeat Shrek and, revealing that he was paid by Harold,
asks to come along as a way to make amends. The three sneak into
the Fairy Godmother's potion factory and steal a "Happily Ever
After" potion that Shrek believes will restore Fiona's love for
him.

Shrek and Donkey both drink the potion and fall into a deep sleep,
awakening the next morning to discover its effects: Shrek is now a
handsome human, while Donkey has turned into a stallion. In order to make the change permanent,
Shrek must kiss Fiona by midnight. He, Donkey, and Puss return to
the castle to discover that the potion has also transformed Fiona
back into her former, human self. However, the Fairy Godmother,
having learned of the potion's theft, intercepts Shrek and sends
Charming to pose as him and win her love. At the Fairy Godmother's
urging, Shrek leaves the castle, believing that the best way to
make Fiona happy is to let her go.

To ensure that Fiona falls in love with Charming, the Fairy
Godmother gives Harold a love potion to put into Fiona's tea. But
Harold replies that it's not possible to make his daughter fall in
love in this way. This exchange is overheard by Shrek, Donkey, and
Puss, who are soon arrested by the royal guards and thrown into a
dungeon. While the royal ball begins, several of Shrek's friends
band together to free the trio and create a gigantic gingerbread man (whose name is Mongo), which
breaks through the castle's defenses so Shrek can stop Charming
from kissing Fiona. He is too late to stop them; instead of falling
in love with Charming, though, Fiona knocks him out with a headbutt. Harold reveals that he never gave Fiona
the love potion, whereupon the Fairy Godmother attacks Shrek. In
the ensuing melee, a spell from her wand, presumably to kill Shrek,
rebounds off Harold's armor, when he commits self-sacrifice to save
Shrek, and disintegrates her; it also returns Harold to his true
form, that of the Frog
Prince. Lilian had been the princess who kissed him and turned
him into a human.

As the clock strikes midnight, Shrek and Fiona let the potion's
effects wear off and they revert to their ogre selves, while Donkey
changes back as well. Harold gives his blessing to the marriage and
apologizes for his earlier behavior, and the party resumes as the
credits begin as they sing "Livin'
La Vida Loca". They are interrupted by a brief after-party
scene in which the Dragon, who had romanced Donkey in the first film, arrives and reveals that they now have
several dragon-donkey hybrid, or "Dronkey",
babies.

Special guest stars

Joan Rivers' cameo marked the first time
that a real person had been represented on screen by the
Shrek animation team. Her part (though retaining her
visual representation) was redubbed by presenter Kate Thornton for the United Kingdom release,
despite Rivers and her image being equally as well-known
there.

Release

Shrek 2 was originally going to release in June 2004. The
film then planned to release on May 21, 2004. Though, Shrek
2 released on May 19, 2004 (two days before). A day before the
film went to theaters, the first five minutes were shown on
Nickelodeon's U-Pick Live.

It was the first film with over 4,000 theaters in overall count;
over 3,700 theaters was its count for an opening day. Spider-Man 2 was the first film with over
4,000 theaters for an opening day and second for overall
counts.

Home media releases

Far Far Away Idol

Far Far Away Idol is a extra in the DVD release based on American Idol and guest starring Simon Cowell. The plot was that characters from
Shrek would sing and dance popular songs at the time, at the end
the viewer gets to pick the winner. The short film was directed by
the Consultant/Advisor of the film, Simon
J.Smith who was director of
Shrek 4-D and the Bee
Movie

Features

Technical Goofs

Meet Puss in the Boots

Filmmakers' Commentary

The Tech of Shrek 2

A Sneak Peek from DreamWorks Animation

DreamWorks Kids

"Far Far Away Idol", a parody of the popular FOX talent show
American Idol.

Reaction

Box office performance

The film opened at #1 with a Friday-to-Sunday total of
$108,037,878, and a total of $128,983,060 since its Wednesday
launch, from a then-record 4,163 theaters, for an average of
$25,952 per theater over the weekend. It also ranked #1 in its
second weekend, grossing $95,578,365 over the 4-day Memorial Day
weekend, narrowly beating out the $85,807,341 4-day tally of new
opener The Day After
Tomorrow. The film spent a total of 10 weeks in the weekly
top 10, and stayed in theaters for 149 days (roughly 21 weeks),
closing on November 25, 2004. It grossed $441,226,247 domestically
(US and Canada), and
$478,612,511 in foreign markets, making a total of $919.8 million worldwide making it the
highest grossing film of 2004, and the
highest-grossing film into the film
series. This also puts the film at fourth on the
all-time domestic box-office list and tenth on the worldwide
box-office list. With DVD sales and
Shrek 2 merchandise are estimated to total almost $800
million, the film (which was produced with a budget of $150
million) is DreamWorks' most profitable film to date.

Critical reception

The film was well received by a number of critics, many rating it
as good as its predecessor, and some rated it even better. Based on
reviews collected from 204 critics by the film review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes, 89% gave Shrek
2 a positive review. On Metacritic,
the film has a weighted average rating of 75 out of 100 based on 40
professional reviews published in newspapers, magazines and in
highly regarded Internet sites, which indicates "generally
favorable reviews".